


Vampires...In Space!

by darkling59



Series: Annals of the Incomplete [4]
Category: Blood-Smoke Series - Tanya Huff, Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Comedy, Crack, Crossover, Humor, Post-Series of Blood Books, Season 1 of ST:E
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-16
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-03-17 23:07:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3547172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkling59/pseuds/darkling59
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a shipping error lands Vicki in the cargo bay of the Enterprise, she's far from happy to find herself accompanying the Enterprise on its maiden journey. Though, to be fair, they're just as unhappy to have her along.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vampires...In Space!

Vicki Nelson, PI and vampire, was tired of being stuck.

Now when most people say they are ‘stuck’, they mean it metaphorically, in the context of ‘stuck between a rock and a hard place’ or ‘one decision and the next’.

Not Vicki. She had been literally stuck, trapped in a coffin sized wooden box wrapped with brown paper and packing tape. Surprisingly enough, this had originally been part of her plan. Mail herself to New York, tear her way out of the box when she got to her destination, then find a cheap apartment to use for a few days.

Unfortunately, the world didn’t work that way.

Her ‘package’ had been delayed and left in a postal vault overnight, packed in tight with other boxes and containers. The fit had been too tight for her to even rattle the base let alone the lid. When the post office had finally gotten off their asses and mailed her to New York, she was asleep for the day.

Therefore she was unaware when her package got accidentally lumped with a group of crates about the same size, destined for the same city. She was unconscious when said packages were delivered en masse to a Starfleet storage facility, checked only by general (rather than individual) serial numbers. She did not feel it when her body began to dematerialize gently as her crate was transported along with 4 nearly identical ones to a waiting ship.

But she sure as hell was awake when her crate was lifted, moved through the ship, and finally set down among more near identical boxes. Confusion pinned her in place until she knew she was alone, then she tore her way out of one narrow end and into the moonlight.

Except there was no moonlight. There were small, dim lights lining a narrow corridor and several boxy grey rooms nearly full of storage containers but there was no moonlight…nor were there any windows.

It didn’t take long for Vicki to realize something was very, very wrong.

After traversing ten corridors, three ladders, and several metal beams not suited for the purpose, she finally came across a small view port.

An endless blanket of stars stretched before her, closer than she’d ever seen with points of white and yellow light gleaming in the cold darkness of outer space.

Outer space.

Outer. Space.

Only two small words seemed sufficient to describe her situation.

“Oh…shit…”

* * *

 

“I believe the crew refers to her as ‘bright eyes’.”

“The ghost? You think a ghost did it?” T’pol sighed internally at the commander’s amused tone. Did he honestly believe she would speak of such frivolous superstitions?

“Hardly.”

“T’pol, do you have any proof that this… ‘Bright Eyes’ did it? Or that it even exists?” Captain Archer scoffed slightly, obviously prepared for a negative answer. Sometimes she wondered if he was even worse than Trip; he certainly dismissed her logic more and refused to listen to the voice of experience in more cases than not.

“I have personally encountered Ms. Nelson on several occasions and while I do not believe she finds the statistics interesting, it is well within her intelligence to interpret them correctly.”

Was that satisfaction she felt as their faces froze in surprise? Of course not. Satisfaction is an emotion, one vulcans do not indulge in.

“Ms…Nelson?”

“Yes captain.” The Vulcan raised a single skeptical eyebrow. “You did not truly believe her name was ‘Bright eyes’, did you?”

“So the ghost- “

“She is not a ghost, Commander Tucker.”

“Perhaps you’d care to enlighten us on what she is exactly? And why you’ve been keeping this information a secret?” The captain morphed quickly from vaguely amused to dangerously suspicious. She would trust her life to him in a firefight but his prejudice against vulcans kept her from trusting him on a personal level; he assumed far too much about her and her activities. Odd that someone usually so genial would have such a paranoid and xenophobic nature.

“I am unfamiliar with her species, captain. However, she appears to be nocturnal and extremely sensitive to light and sound. Also, her eyes are often luminescent, giving rise to the moniker, and her canine teeth far more prominent than those of humans. And, if you will recall, I did broach the subject. You claimed you already knew about the creature and I should ‘stop being superstitious’.”

Far from chastened, Archer scowled and crossed his arms. “I didn’t know you were serious!”

T’pol shot him a skeptical glare before responding. “Vulcans do not ‘joke’, captain.”

“Of course. That would be emotional, wouldn’t it?”

“If you are trying to goad me into-.”

“Wait, wait…” two hostile glares turned towards the chief engineer, the only one present who had managed to stay out of the argument. “T’pol, when did you first meet this…Ms. Nelson? How long’s she been on the ship? I think the Bright eyes rumors have been go since we left earth but that’s impossible if she’s the source.”

“All logical questions, commander.” She pretended to ignore the captain’s suddenly embarrassed look; apparently he’d just realized his best friend was doing his job. “My first substantial encounter was after our encounter with the Vulcan ship T’Mir.”

“First substantial encounter?” She turned primly towards the captain who was now apparently willing to listen. Trip was nodding at her last statement. He had good reason to remember; that was when they’d come close to losing her. How close, only he knew. It was also when she’d started respecting his opinions. Well, sometimes.

“Indeed.”

“What the hell do you mean by substantial?”

She did not respond to his aggressive tone, merely answered in her usual measured manner. “On the first planet we studied, I believed I had encountered a creature much like her. However, as I had been severely affected by the hallucinogenic pollen at the time I later dismissed the meeting as imaginary.”

“But you don’t know that.” Archer was no longer acting aggressive; now that a possible explanation was coming forth he was quite willing to listen if it meant he could get his ship out of danger.

“No.”

“So Bright eyes came on board at the pollen planet? I thought nothing lived there!” Trip sounded downright horrified. That planet had left its mark on him and it wasn’t good; near murder had forced him to acknowledge a very different and uncomfortable side of his personality.

“That is what the scans showed.” She responded, moving to keep both men in her field of vision. “I am not certain she came on board there.”

“Then where?” Captain Archer stood and made his way to the view port, staring out at the stars streaking past. “She can’t have just materialized on board. And if you saw her planetside there then isn’t that the logical choice?”

“Perhaps.” She did not elaborate. It was a logical conclusion, after all. The alien could have hidden from sensors then used some sort of unknown technology to get on board. It would appear to be the only logical conclusion…but only if the logician had not heard her speak very clear American English without the aid of a UT. That was a fact T’pol was more than willing to keep to herself at the moment.

**Author's Note:**

> This is another one of those stories that got lost in the back of my hard drive and only made it to my subsequent computers due to its proximity to more important documents. Once upon a time (early in 2007) I had the idea to re-write the first season of Star Trek: Enterprise with the added factors of Vicki skulking in the cargo bay and Henry trying to get her back to earth. I had a detailed outline written, but very little ever came of it.


End file.
